Metal Gear vs Tomb Raider: The Stone of Duality (Pt 1?)
by MarsOlive
Summary: A powerful stone resides in a temple distant from any coast. It's coincidentally landed on the radar of both the US government, and a certain tomb-raiding woman.


Helicopter blades slash through the air like blades; pushing forward to the island below. In the chopper, an impatient soldier clad in a black tactical vest, a grey uniform, a belt full of grenades & useful trinkets, and black combat boots. Not to forget the large, suppressed pistol strapped to the side of him. The only thing that seems a touch out of place is his slightly shaggy hair being held by a bandana. He suddenly gets a call from a PDA in one of his many pockets. A face appears with a high-ranking officer in uniform.

"Hrgh, Colonel." the man says in a grizzly tone.

"Snake." The Colonel replied alarmingly. "I assume you've got the brief of the mission?"

"Yeah I did, but something is confusing me about this: why are we flying to this island? Is there a Patriot base of operations hidden around here, and is this artifact actually able to help us?"

"To answer your first question; no, there is no base here. However, the artifact is rumored to use old technologies that we might find useful." He replied.

"Now shape up you're dropping in ten seconds."

Snake to say the least is annoyed about his current predicament. He doesn't think that an old trinket would serve well in a war where espionage is dominant, and nuke-launching mechs are starting to look more commonplace. However, if the Patriots were interested, then maybe this trip wouldn't be as worthless as the cigarette butt below his boot. A door in the back of the heli drops open. The ground below is green and lush like it's mid summer. Jumping down and out, rolling as he jumped roughly twenty feet down. The mission was set; Operation Swiftshot is in motion

Meanwhile, a woman climbs up onto a nearby cliff face on the other side of the island. She's wearing a brown tank top with a white shirt below it. Along with short shorts to match. Although not a super-practical getup, the way she easily jumps and climbs up the cliff makes her agile and nimble to say the least. Her brown hair is tied in a ponytail, waving back and forth. Though it's also surprising that the pistols strapped to her legs have not shifted whatsoever from the momentum. Once she arrives to the top, she sees the distant helicopter leaving the island.

"Well that can't be good" she says in a sophisticated British voice. "Better call Zip just to check in."

The woman pulls out an earpiece while walking into an alternate entrance to the ruins. While waiting, she admires the ancient architecture and almost forgets about the phonecall. It's only until it's answered that it breaks her focus.

"Oh, hey Lara. You made it in?" Zip says in a Chicago-like accent.

"That I did. Out of curiosity, do you know what Amanda is doing at the moment?"

"Well I'd figure you'd know more about that than I do." Zip says in a smart tone of voice.

Lara chuckles, but she is by no means less aware of the presumable threat at hand. By all means, what happened in Bolivia really made it so things were getting aggressive between the two.

"Well I ask because a helicopter flew over the island a second ago. You didn't see that on the satellite live feed?"

"Not a thing. She probably bought some fancy stealth tech for me to not see squat."

"Hmmm… well I'll call you back." Lara said.

"Alright, I'll also tell Alister that you said hello." Zip replied.

Lara then cut the call and proceeded to walk deeper into the temple. Typically, there would've been a trap or a massive door to unlock. Instead, it's just a bunch of straight corridors. All of them leading to a central auditorium no bigger than a manor's main hall. It was probably the same size as the one Lara has, though with a lot more rubble thrown about. This was all dull compared to what lied in the center of the room On a pedestal there a very small, metallic statue of two snakes wrapping around nude male and female figures. It glowed with faint, blue accents on the scales. Right as Lara walked up closer to get a better look, a voice speaks from the shadows.

"I wouldn't touch that if I were you" a grizzled voice said. "Odds are that thing is the one trap in these ruins."

"Hmph, and I assume you're the one with the fancy helicopter?" Lara said with some bite in her tone. Snake then proceeded to walk out from a nearby shadow, with massive pistol in hand.

"Who are you?" Snake said inquisitively "There wasn't supposed to be any Patriot troops here, so either command was wrong, or you are an agent."

"La li lu le lo? I have no clue on what you've said."

"Hm, well that barely helps any." Snake said.

"Well I have some questions about you, like you're employer."

"That's on a need-to-know basis, and I think you have me confused with a lowly mercenary."

"Well you look a bit like one." Lara said with a hind of wit.

At this point, the two are circling each other around the pedestal; Eying each other with massive amounts of paranoia. Lara at this point has her hand on one of her guns. Snake is careful not to take eyes off her. Fortunately it isn't hard for him to do so.

"I see you have two USP 45s; built-in muzzle brakes. Very reliable, assuming you can use them."

Lara scoffed. "Oh please, I'd worry more about the state you're going to be in after I'm done with you."

Snake let out a smirk, the both of them stopped right in their tracks. They stood there looking right at each other. They were at a standstill, and they both were waiting for an opportunity. They're both listening to each other's footsteps, the squeakiness of Snake's boots; the firm taps from Lara's. Neither of them was going to slip from a stroll. Then all of the sudden, Snake had an idea…

*CLICK*

"AHHhhh!" Lara screamed. She was blinded by the flashlight under Snake's gun. He took the chance do dive behind some rubble while Lara was disoriented. However this was brief; she jumped right behind a broken pillar and pulled out both pistols. She retaliated with the first shots. The only thing that filled the once quiet room were the gunshots, their echoes, and the relatively gentle tap of casings hitting the floor. Snake was pinned, having to resort to one of the smoke grenades on his belt. Once it did its work filling the room halfway with smoke, He threw a flash-bang right next to Lara.

"Aw hell!" she yelled. Having to jump right out of cover flowing through the smoke. Snake fired several having only grazed her shoulder before she fell into more cover. The flash-bang goes off only for no one to see the blinding light and deafening boom.

"You're pretty good." Snake said, genuinely impressed. For a brief moment, she reminded him of Gray Fox back at Shadow Moses. How he jumped and flipped through the air with the cybernetics built into him. Yet Lara wasn't augmented, maybe partly infused with past magics she encountered, but no more than that. What she lacked in proper physical defense was basically superhuman agility and endurance.

"Thanks." She said with some pride "I do try my best in life or death situations." The clicks of handguns being charged echoes. Snake then unloads onto her location, giving suppressing fire onto the massive brick she fell behind while moving behind a half-smashed wall. The smoke from earlier having started to thin. Lara then opens fire on the wall and pushes forward, making sure not to lessen the pressure she has. Round after round breaks part of the wall. She was about to turn the corner to fire directly upon him, but right as she did; the only thing there was a cardboard box with a large camo band surrounding its midsection. Lara to say the least was confused. She's never seen a cardboard book being used in a combat scenario. She promptly kicked it up, having revealed a flash-bang grenade. It blew up right in front of her, leaving her eyes with nothing but a blinding affect, and her ears constantly ringing.

"Optic Camouflage" Snake said while appearing out of thin air. "A little something that I took from Shadow Moses a while back." Although this is the only opportunity Snake had to disarm her. Once she recovered from the effects, she would be giving Snake more of a hard time than she already has. Snake then had to knock her off her feet, sending the pistols flying across the room. Lara was on the ground, still nauseous from the flash, but now able to see and somewhat coordinate herself again. She dodged an assortment of strikes from Snake, however she took a blow to her right shoulder and upper arm.

"Ghahck!" She let out a brief grunt, but she wasn't about to loose. She sacked Snake right in the lower jaw, then kicked the poor bastard several feet off.

"Ygreheahhh!" He yelled while being thrown through the air. He landed, having the air get knocked out of him. However, the kick landed him right next to the idol. Seeing the snakes, it put the picture of Liquid Snake, his clone brother that died while trying to kill Snake. Despite being short of breath, he grabbed the idol. Part of it was left into the platform though, causing a bright blue flash of light to appear. Somehow, it managed to stop the brawl that was going on between them.

"What!?" Lara screamed "What the bloody hell did you just do?"

Snake was coughing. The kick did a good number on him. It wouldn't be surprising if he broke a rib from something that harsh.

"I… Have to... " He goes into another coughing fit before standing up to regain his breath. "I have to get this to… the Colonel."

Lara was confused. "Wait, what... Colonel?" She asked, being partly exhausted. Along with partly being deaf from a flash-bang being blown in front of her

"Classified… and I'm definitely NOT going to tell a Patriot!" Snake said, almost falling back over. "And after… fighting you

"Well, I'm not a part of the La li lu le lo you're speaking of" Lara said, still exhausted. Her ears still ringing. "I'm an archeologist…"

The room was quiet for a quick second. There was only a slight hum coming from the totem while it glowed. Then a few seconds later, a small chuckle managed to escape Snake.

"How do you consider walking into a ruin guns blazing archeology?" He asked. "Even that… who do you call him? Indianola James? He did actual archeology."

Lara couldn't immediately come up with an answer. Snake then pointed to his left of the room. "You're guns are over there. Sorry if they got scuffed during the hustle." He said "I got what I came for, and I don't wanna miss my ride." While he says that, he holds up his PDA with the words "Evac Inbound" strewn across its screen. Along with the small figure glowing brightly in his right hand.

"W-wait! Hold on just a moment; I still need that!" Lara said in a distraught tone.

"You can take the other one. I just don't have the time to dig it up right now. They both seem to have the same power and it's fine by me."

"But it's not a complete set! It's far less valuable in its current state!"

"It doesn't matter when this tech will save lives, and the name's Solid Snake if you were wondering"

"C-croft; Lara Croft." She said in a very confused tone of voice.

"Well, then see you around then." Snake then dropped a smoke grenade to cover his tracks. Even if Lara really wanted to follow him, her ankles were in a good deal of pain after kicking Snake down to the ground. The pain would've stunted her running speed. She walked over to the pedestal in the center and managed to pick up the other figure with ease.

"That's odd." She said. Right then, a beam of light spewed out of the figure.

Snake was in the meantime running out of the very hallway he came in, The chopper was starting to set down on the ground, with Snake hopping in before it can even do so.

"Kept you waiting, huh?" He said to the pilot who waved back at him. Snake then turned around and saw the laser heading towards him. The beam of light struck him through center mass. It didn't hurt him, it didn't even pierce his torso. However it was doing something. The beam forced his body to change complexion. His hair lengthened, facial features were feminine, a bust protruded from under his vest, hips slightly extended from the sides, and he was basically a she at this point.

Snake screamed, in possibly the most feminine voice possible, "HrNghghHHHHH COLONELLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!?"


End file.
